


We're Driven From Our Parallels

by MollyKillers



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon-ish, Cute, Episode: s16e01 Girls Disappeared, First Meetings, First Words, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Parallels, Rafael's words are dramatic, Romantic Soulmates, Sonny's words are dorky, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, barisi bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:47:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23519470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MollyKillers/pseuds/MollyKillers
Summary: In a world where your first words show up on the skin of your soulmate“Holy cannoli, you’re Rafael Barba!”*dramatic eye-roll*
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 90
Collections: April 2020 Barisi Bingo





	We're Driven From Our Parallels

**Author's Note:**

> I've had two lines of this story sitting in my notes since December and I'm so I'm glad I could finally get back in a writing mood and finish it!  
> I didn't know I was writing this with with the Bingo collection in mind but when I saw the prompt card I said to myself 'fuck it, lets put it as one'. Now I probably won't get anywhere close to a bingo but who knows haha.
> 
> Title taken from the song No Parallels by Hand's Like Houses. Song doesn't have much to do with the story but I highly recommend it regardless.

Sonny Carisi loved the idea of soulmates.

From the moment he found out they were a thing he couldn’t contain his excitement at the prospect that there was someone out in the world that was made to complete him. As a child he would wake up and check every day for the words his person had made just for him to show up somewhere on his body (even though he knew they wouldn’t show till he was 16). 

He had no reason not to believe in love and soulmates. His parents were soulmates and even after many years they were still so madly in love. 

Every year since their children were born, on their anniversary, the two parental Carisi’s would sit their children down and recount the story of their first meeting.

_Dominick senior was working at a grocery store as a bagger. On the day it happened he was asked to cover a shift for a friend after his original one. He had worked almost all day and was delirious from being on his feet for so long._

_He was bagging groceries for an older man when the man asked if he could help bring them out to his car. Of course, Dominick quickly jumped at the chance as that was his job, but he was actually grateful to do it as it meant he would be able to breathe some fresh air if only for a minute._

_When they reached the small light blue car a breathtaking young woman, about the same age as Dominick, jumped out of the passenger seat with a slightly angry expression on her face. “Grandpa what did I tell you? I told you I would help load everything” the girl said tired and frustrated anger evident in her tone._

_Dominick was so tired and taken-aback by the beautiful women in front of him that he couldn’t stop his mouth from blurting out “could I just say I find you incredibly stunning?”. The women audibly gasped and stared at the young man who was holding a paper bag full of canned food. The woman smiled a beautiful happy smile that seemed to light up the already sunny day and nodded before saying “if you did you might just be my soulmate”._

_At finally hearing those fated words Dominick couldn’t help but drop the heavy bag as he stared at this beautiful girl, his other half, who was finally there in front of him._

Every year after being told the story all the Carisi sisters would roll their eyes at how sappy their parents were. While Sonny would just smile and ask to hear the story again. 

Sonny had no reason not to believe in love.

**********

Rafael Barba was scared and confused by the idea of soulmates. 

When he would go over at his grandmother’s house she always told him stories about great loves. Sometimes she would tell him how she met hers but mostly she would read him these fantastical stories of old about love and finding the one you were destined for. With each story, mixed with the passion his grandmother would talk about love, he almost wanted to believe that someday he would find the one for him just like in the stories.

However, those fleeting happy thoughts and feelings rarely lasted. His parents were soulmates and were miserable. His father was a piece of crap that talked with his fists. While his mother was a saint in human form that just took what his father dished out all based on the notion that the universe brought them together.

When Rafael was just ten years old he saw his father break his mother’s nose. That moment was when he gave up on the idea of soulmates all together.

Rafael had no reason to believe in love.

**********

The night before Sonny’s sixteenth birthday he couldn’t fall asleep. He was filled with so much excitement. He was about to see his words. The words that would lead him to his other half. This person who was made for him and that he was made for, the love of his life.

Just before midnight his mother came up to check on him and found him staring up at the ceiling grinning like a fool. She smiled and chuckled at her son’s eager excitement. She went and sat with him on his bed holding him in her arms like she did when he was just a babe. She ran a comforting hand through his long hair and retold how she met his father as she knew her son loved the story. 

When the clock struck midnight, Sonny jumped up and ran to his mirror. He felt a slight tingle on his right upper arm and pulled up his pajama sleeve to watch thin grey lines begin to form on his arm. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he watched the grey lines begin to darken to a black and form words. 

After a minute of tingles the lines stopped changing and darkened until just three words remained. Sonny stared at them for a minute just taking them in even as they didn’t make much sense to him. He turned to his mother and showed her the strange writing and she gasped a confused but happy gasp as she read the three words that sat between a pair of asterisk on her son’s arm

*Dramatic eye-roll*.

**********

The night before Rafael’s sixteenth birthday he couldn’t fall asleep. The pain in his face and chest from the beating he had just received was making every breath a chore. Every intake of breath made a sharp pain run through his chest and every outtake made the throbbing of his face become more and more present. 

His mother had been out late because of work so when his father came home drunk and pissed he was the only one there to take his wrath. 

When Rafael heard the chimes single it was the next day, from the living room clock, he couldn’t even bring himself to care. He felt his arm begin to tingle but he was in so much pain he couldn’t tell why it was tingling. He passed out with tears crawling down his face and blood seeping from his head.

The next morning as he did his best to clean himself up for school he noticed the black scribble on his upper arm. He had just washed away the blood from the cut on his head and was putting on some of the makeup he stole from his grandma to cover the large purple and blue hand prints that encased his neck when the different colored skin on his upper arm caught his eye. It immediately sent a scared and confused chill through him.

He stared at the markings and scrubbed at them trying to wash them off. When he realized they weren’t coming off he slid to the bathroom floor and did his best to keep himself quiet as he had a mild panic attack. There was someone out there for him and he was terrified to his core. What if they were as awful as his dad was? Or worse what if they were actually a good person who would love and care for him like the people in his grandmother’s stories?

He sat on the floor for a minute, collecting himself before being able to pull himself together and stand back up. He stared at his words one more time before dumping a large amount of concealer over them and making the words he wanted to believe in but couldn’t disappear 

“Holy cannoli, you’re Rafael Barba!”.

**********

Sonny looked at his words every morning when he woke up and every night before he went to bed. While they didn’t make a lot of sense he still loved them. He just knew the person they belonged to was as dramatic as they were amazing and he couldn’t wait to finally meet them.

Most people met their soulmate in their teens or twenties but Sonny didn’t. He didn’t let that get to him though. Even when all his friends sent him pity looks when others around them would talk about their soulmates. He knew his other half was still out there waiting for him to find them.

While he focused on school and then his career he never gave up hope. 

When he started at the academy he told his friends he also wanted to be a lawyer and they all laughed at him. From then on, he was always introduced as ‘Carisi the lawyer cop’ which almost always earned him eye rolls from others. With each eye roll his pulse would quicken with anticipation. Could this person be the one, but sadly they never were. 

When he finally worked his way up to a detective in homicide without him even saying anything back to the person he could tell their eye roll wasn’t right. He knew it wasn’t right every time because each eye roll was filled with annoyance, disgust, or anger. He just knew deep down his soulmate’s eyes would move maybe because of annoyed amusement but never because of hate or true anger.

He worked homicide for a few years and it slowly wore him down. What it always came back to was the victim’s eyes. Seeing their blank cold expressions made him think of his person and how the victims would never be able to see through their eyes. He never let the sick nature of his job taint the love he had for his unknown other half, but after a particularly brutal case involving soulmates he knew he couldn’t do it anymore.

He transferred out of homicide into the special victim’s unit, and everything just felt better. Even as he bounced around from Staten Island, to Brooklyn, then to the Bronx he knew he had made the right choice. 

When he was finally sent to Manhattan he just knew this was the place he was always meant to be.

**********

Rafael tried to never look at his words. They only brought him pain so he covered them up with makeup or bandages so he never had to look at them. 

When he was eighteen, as he laid in a hospital bed after his father had attacked him and his mother and broken his arm and four of his ribs, Rafael finally let himself really look at his words. He knew his father wasn’t able to hurt him or his mother again so he felt safe enough to truly look at them.

The scribbled hand writing of the blackened words was adorable to say the least and the words were dumb but cute. He cried himself to sleep thinking of this person out there in the world who for some reason was so blown away to meet him. 

Things turned around for Rafael after his father’s arrest. His mother and him moved in with his grandmother as he finished his remaining months of high school. He worked hard and received a scholarship to Harvard where he worked even harder and received a law degree. 

While he worked hard and tried to only focus on achieving his goals he did, in the back of his mind, always hope to hear those words of seemingly joyous recognition from the person who was meant to be his. Living with his grandmother and then meeting many happy couples in college made him reconsider his stance on soulmates. While he was still a little weary, he slowly grew more and more excited at the prospect. 

With every case he won he felt proud, not just for the victims, but for the goodness that became associated with his name. He knew it was stupid and maybe a little conceded but he wanted his soulmate to be proud of him because of all the good he tried to do. He felt he needed to in some way earn his soulmates admiration clearly shown through their first words.

Working on cases for the special victim’s unit was tough but always worth it, and when he was given the opportunity to move to the Manhattan DA’s office he jumped at the chance. There he met Olivia Benson and her squad and life just got better. He met people who cared as much for finding justice as he did. It was like he just knew this was the place he was always meant to be.

**********

Neither man could have predicted how their first meeting would go. Of course, both of them had imagined meeting their other half but neither thought it would happen quite like it did.

Sonny had just joined Manhattan’s own SVU and was working his first case. During that short amount of time he had already been yelled at by his new boss because he offered T status to a victim they were interviewing, and he had also been made fun of because of his ‘classic 70’s cop look’ by his new colleagues. Plus, to top off his already horrible first week the case was going to hell in a handbasket as most of the witnesses were turning up dead. 

Rafael was glad he had a prescription for migraine meds before this case started because from the first briefing about the case he had needed them. The case didn’t seem any worse than any other prostitution ring case they had worked before, but the scale of this one was off the charts. It had so many moving pieces it was hard to keep everything straight without splitting your head.

When Fin had told him about Olivia’s son being shot at Sonny was shocked. His new Lieutenant was the sweetest woman in the world and it shook him to his core to think that someone he loved could someday get hurt because of his job. After hearing that he almost immediately moved his work out of the hustle and bustle of the main grouping of desks to the conference area where he could decompress in peace while looking at all the case info up on the boards.

Rafael felt helpless as he listened to his friend tell him about the panic that had gone through her after hearing the gun shots and then seeing Noah’s stroller tipped over and empty. He knew now more than ever how extremely important it was to catch these bastards. Once he was sure she and Noah were fine he rushed to the precinct. He didn’t want to waste a moment sitting in his office when he could possibly be helping the other detectives figure out what was going on. 

When Sonny heard the sound of quick walking feet he looked towards the desk area and spotted a man who stopped at Fin’s desk. The man was very attractive in his light suit and had an aura of familiarity to him which drew Carisi in. He watched as the two talked for a minute until Fin turned in his chair and started towards him, attractive guy in toe.

Fin pointed towards the conference area “we have the boards set up and the new dudes in there working. I heard he’s going to law school and all so maybe you two can figure stuff out”. Rafael looked to the room then back to Fin and shrugged “they say two heads are better than one”. 

The closer the attractive man came the hotter and also more familiar he looked. Sonny knew if he had met someone that good looking he would remember him but he also knew that face looked oddly familiar. 

“This is our newbie Carisi, but you can call him Sonny,” Fin said as he pointed towards the lone man as they walked up to the table. Rafael was struck by how attractive the man was. He knew the man was obviously trying too hard as the whole look screamed cop from the 70’s/80’s but even with the oversized dress shirt, over greased hair, and pornstar mustache the man was stunning. 

“And this, my newbie,” Fin said pointing to the other man “is our ADA Rafael Barba”. Sonny’s eyes grew huge as the name of the stunning man left Fin’s lips. This was Rafael Barba aka the man he had idolized since hearing about him from one of his professors. This was the man who got choked out in open court, took down a potential mayor, and did so many other amazing things to help victims and all during just his first year in Manhattan.

Sonny shot up and threw out his hand “holy cannoli you’re Rafael Barba!”. 

Rafael couldn’t help as his eyes rolled back dramatically at the man before him. Of course, this was the man who was supposed to be his other half. 

Sonny’s eyes widened even more, though it didn’t seem possible. Rafael Barba, the Rafael Barba who he idolized, just rolled his eyes dramatically. It had to be him! He had to be the one.

“It’s you!” Sonny whispered out, his voice full of nervous excitement, as he continued to shake Rafael’s hand. 

Rafael cracked an amused smile as he stared at the other man “it’s me... and it’s also you”.

“I knew you wouldn’t hate me” Sonny blurted as soon as Rafael pulled away from their prolonged handshake. Rafael slightly squinted at him “... what?”. 

Fin threw his hands up and backed away “you two figure out whatever you need to... I’m out”.

Sonny walked around the table to stand in front of Rafael with nothing in his way “all my life people have rolled their eyes at me, and yeah I usually deserved them, but they were always out of anger or disgust but I just knew you wouldn’t do that. Yeah, you’re annoyed but also amused so it’s not hate. This eye roll was fonder” Sonny rambled as a small amused smile slowly crawled up Rafael’s face. 

“Wait... what does it say?” Rafael asked, touching Sonny’s covered upper arm where he knew his words were. “Because I don’t understand, I don’t even remember what I said” he said, a slight panic to his voice, as he realized he didn’t even remember what he had said to make Carisi know.

Sonny hesitantly smiled and rolled up his sleeve revealing long pale limbs that Rafael wanted wrapped around him. 

“Here” Sonny said softly as he revealed the dark lettering of his words. *Dramatic eye-roll* stared back at Rafael making him smile and slightly chuckle to himself “well, my abuelita always said I had a flare for the dramatics”. He said as he gently ran a finger over the words causing a shutter to run through Sonny’s body.

Sonny let Rafael rub over the words a few times. He just couldn’t believe that his soulmate was standing in front of him. He had dreamed about this moment since he could remember and it was taking all this power not to grab the other man into his arms and never let him go. 

“Can umm can I see yours?” Sonny asked, the words breaking through Rafael’s trance as he traced the dark letters. “Yeah of course” he said softly as he took a step back and pulled off his jacket. He rolled up his sleeve and stuck out his arm.

Sonny took the older man’s arm and blushed at seeing his hero worship words staring back at him. “Sorry I didn’t give you cooler words” he joked out trying to cover his obvious nervousness.

Rafael placed his hand over Sonny’s on his words. “Were those words a little... dorky? Yes, but I wouldn’t have traded them for the world. They made me work hard so that one day when my soulmate said them to me they would be out of happiness. And they worked, they brought me to you and I wouldn’t trade that for anything”. 

Sonny stepped closer to Rafael “I umm I really wanna kiss you” he said blushing “I also want to hold you in my arms and never let you go”. 

Rafael touched his words on Sonny’s arm and stepped even closer “how about you kiss me now and then later we can discuss you holding me forever”. 

Sonny cupped his soulmate's face in his hands “I like that”.

Kissing in the middle of the conference area of a police precinct wasn’t how either of them imagined how meeting their soulmate was going to go. But with the way their mouths fit perfectly against each other, neither of them would have had it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Well what did you think? Kudos and comments are always appreciated!
> 
> Let's be friends on twitter if you want - @MollyKillers


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